Per a rumor on AppleTell, Apple has apparently told developers to have their applications ready for a launch as soon as today. A source told the site that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs wanted to launch even sooner than today.

“That obviously didn’t happen, but Apple appears to be way ahead of schedule on the Mac App Store nonetheless, and looks to take advantage of the Christmas rush,” author Kirk Hiner wrote.

Last week, Apple issued its second beta of Mac OS X 10.6.6 with support for the forthcoming Mac App Store. Developers with the early build were reportedly told that the latest update to Snow Leopard “contains developer support for fetching and renewing App Store receipts.”

The Mac App Store was announced in October, and Jobs said it would launch within 90 days. To meet that launch window, Apple has until late January.

Apple is rumored to hold a media event in the coming days to announce the ability to subscribe to publications on the iPad through an iTunes account. It’s possible that Apple could also launch the Mac App Store at the apparent event.

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Less than a month after seeding the first beta, Apple has issued the second beta release of Mac OS X 10.6.6 this Thursday.

Per AppleInsider, build 10J537 of Mac OS X Snow Leopard software update 10.6.6 is a 1000MB download and “contains developer support for fetching and renewing App Store receipts,” which could mean that the 10.6.6 update is scheduled for release in time for the opening of the Mac App Store, which is set to arrive within the next few months.

Apple released the most recent OS X update, Mac OS X 10.6.5, on Nov. 10. The update was originally expected to include full Mac support for AirPrint, the new wireless printing feature in iOS 4.2, but documentation accompanying the release lacked any mention of the feature

Just prior to the release of Mac OS X 10.6.5, reports emerged suggesting that Apple had delayed Mac OS X support for AirPrint because of last minute stability and compatibility problems.

If you’ve gotten your mitts on the latest build and have any thoughts on it, please let us know.

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Late Monday, Elgato Systems released version 3.5 of its EyeTV software application, which finds and tracks all television programming you want to see and allows users to pause live television and save content to file.

The new version, a 104 megabyte update which can be found here via MacUpdate (and can also be found through EyeTV 3.0′s update feature), adds the following fixes and features:

- Enhanced performance & stability with EyeTV Netstream Sat.

- Recordings from IceTV are now correctly labeled as Movie or Series when exported.

- Fixes a problem where thumbnails were not always created for recordings.

- Fixes a problem where recordings without thumbnails had no artwork when exported.

- Fixes incorrect positioning of subtitles when changing between SD and HD channels.

- Fixes invalid characters being displayed in chapter names on the new Apple TV.

- Resolved an issue where EyeTV HD recordings in iPad format would display artifacts when played back on devices running iOS 4.

EyeTV 3.5 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run. The program retails for US$79.95.

As nifty as Apple’s 27″ Cinema Display, there may be some kinks to work out.

Per MacNN, the device is suffering from serious audio problems, some owners say. Complaints reportedly surfaced back in October on the Apple boards, but have persisted without any solution from Apple. In worst-case scenarios Cinema Displays have been losing built-in audio entirely, although the glitch can be temporarily solved by unplugging and reconnecting the monitor, or in some instances changing audio settings.

Another problem involves slow response times for keyboard-based volume controls. Affected displays can potentially take as long as 6 or 7 seconds to respond to keyboard presses, making onboard sound impractical.

The issues are notably affecting both Mac and Windows systems, suggesting that any permanent solution will require a firmware or hardware fix. The root cause may in fact involve USB connections, as Macs using Mini DisplayPort for audio have been going unaffected. Apple support staff are said to be aware of the problem, but unable to tell if or when a fix is coming. Some customers have managed to secure replacement monitors only to encounter the same trouble.

If you’ve seen these issues on your end or discovered your own fix or workaround, please let us know.

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Late Wednesday, software giant Google released version 6.0.0.1735 of its popular Google Earth program. The new version, a 53.3 megabyte download, adds the following new features:

New features in Google Earth 6:

- Integrated Street View: In Google Earth 6, the Street View experience is now fully integrated. You can enter Street View either by dropping pegman in navigation controls or by zooming in all the way to ground level on places that have Street View.

- 3D Trees:Google Earth now has trees. You can enable trees by turning on the check-box next to the Trees layer under the 3D buildings layer folder. You can see trees in several places, and we will add trees to more places over time.

- Easy to use historical imagery:When you fly to an area where historical imagery is available, the date of the oldest imagery will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. If you click on this date, you’ll instantly be taken back in time to view imagery from that time period.

- Ground-level navigation: In Google Earth 6, in addition to flying around features, you can now walk on the ground to explore either 3D buildings and trees or Street View imagery.
3D Measurements in Google Earth Pro:In addition to measuring distances and areas on the ground, you can now measure heights and widths of 3D building and distances from buildings to the ground.

Other changes in Google Earth 6:
- Tour Recorder Improvements:With Google Earth 6, the tour recording feature has been improved in several ways. The tour recorder now incorporates the activation of Sunlight, Street View, and Historical Imagery modes into the recorded tour. Additionally, the quality of the recording has been significantly improved, including better motion fidelity and better synchronization with sound recording.

- Earth on PowerPC Mac:We are discontinuing support for Google Earth builds that work on PowerPC Macs. Users of PowerPC macs can still use the Google Earth 5.2 version.

- Earth on OS X 10.4:We are discontinuing support for Google Earth builds that work on 10.4 version of Mac OS X. Users of this version of Mac OS X can still use Google Earth 5.2 version.
Earth on Windows 2000:We are discontinuing support for Google Earth builds that work on Windows 2000. Users of Windows 2000 can still use the Google Earth 5.2 version.

- Linux Builds:Google Earth Linux binaries are now based on the Linux Standard Base. This improves the compatibility of Google Earth on different Linux distributions, but requires users to have Linux Standard Base installed on their system. If your Linux system does not have LSB, please install it using apt, yum, smart or up2date. As a side effect of moving to LSB, joysticks are currently unsupported.

As cool as the idea of FaceTime and videoconferencing can be, you really don’t want to be receiving these calls without expecting them.

Per iPodNN, some of Apple’s various FaceTime-compatible devices made a series of random calls to each other overnight between the 27th and the 28th, according to reports and complaints on Apple’s support forums. While the iPhone 4 was predominantly affected, the issue is also said to have hit the fourth-generation iPod touch, and even the Mac beta client. The calls are often described as showing mutual requests, even though no one actually dialed, and in some cases one of the devices was off.

The incidents are moreover said to have occurred at about the same time: approximately 6:30PM Pacific, 9:30PM Eastern and 3:30AM in central Europe. The exact cause is unclear, but could involve a problem on Apple servers handling the FaceTime system. Because of the involvement of Macs, the glitch is unlikely to be related to iOS 4.2.1, which was made public just last Monday.

Me, I’m of the opinion that this is a preemptive (and lame) initial attack by a SkyNet-esque computer that simply wants to terrify you by having to conduct a FaceTime call with relatives this close after Thanksgiving…

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Late Wednesday, the Camino Project released version 2.0.6 of Camino, its free, open source web browser.
The new version, a 15.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

- Upgraded to the latest 1.9.0 version of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine, which includes several critical security and stability fixes.

- Flash and Silverlight plug-ins no longer continually log errors to the Console on Mac OS X 10.6 when Camino is hidden or a browser window is minimized.

- Camino can now save usernames and passwords for web page forms which manipulate the username or password via JavaScript during form submission.

- Creating, editing, and removing bookmarks now updates the Spotlight metadata more reliably.
Downloaded files that do not have a content-length header will no longer appear as canceled downloads after restarting Camino.

Camino requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run.

If you’ve tried the new version of Camino and have any kind of feedback about it, let us know.

Late Friday, Apple released a second gold master of iOS 4.2, its forthcoming software update, which may address Wi-Fi connectivity issues some have reported with the iPad.

Per AppleInsider, the new build, dubbed 8C134b, has replaced the previous gold master released to developers on November 1st. Typically a gold master issued to developers is identical to the version that eventually becomes the final release.

It is unknown what changes have been made in the second gold master, though it’s possible the latest version could be to address Wi-Fi issues that some users experienced with the pre-release build. Recent reports have claimed that Apple hoped to release iOS 4.2 sooner, but was forced to push back the launch to address issues with the software.

Regardless of whether the software has actually been “delayed” from Apple’s own internal launch goals, it has become increasingly apparent that there are issues with iOS 4.2. In addition to the Wi-Fi problems reported by testers of the first golden master, Apple has also cut features from AirPrint — specifically, the ability to print to a shared printer through a Mac or Windows machine.

Printer sharing was supposed to be a part of Mac OS X 10.6.5, but the software was released Wednesday without any official support for sharing a printer with iOS devices. The recently released iTunes 10.1 update was supposed to allow shared printers for Windows users, but the update arrived Friday also without mention of AirPrint.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

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After months of beta versions and development, Apple has released its Mac OS X 10.6.5 update for its Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” operating system. The update, which varies in size depending on your presently installed version of the operating system, personally weighed in at over a 500 megabyte download.

The update offers the following fixes and changes:

- Improves reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers.

- Addresses performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture.

- Addresses stability and performance of graphics applications and games.

- Resolves a delay between print jobs.

- Addresses a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme.

- Resolves an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal.

- Addresses an issue in which dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide.

- Resolves an issue in which Wikipedia information may not display correctly in Dictionary.

- Improves performance of MainStage on certain Macs.

- Resolves spacing issues with OpenType fonts.

- Improves reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays.

- Resolves a VoiceOver issue when browsing some websites with Safari 5.

It’s the rumors that keep life interesting, especially when you’re hankering for significant new software updates.

Per MacStories, Apple is slated to launch Mac OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 on Wednesday, November 10th, and iOS 4.2 for iPhone and iPad on Friday, November 12th, according to a new rumor.

Citing an inside source at AT&T, MacStories reported Tuesday that iOS 4.2 will be released on Friday at 10 a.m. The update, which will mark the debut of iOS 4 on the iPad, will require iTunes 10.1 to be installed.

iOS 4.2 will bring AirPrint and AirPlay to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, allowing users to wirelessly print and stream music and video to connected devices. Mac users need Mac OS X 10.6.5 to share a printer with an iOS device, while Windows users will access a printer through iTunes 10.1.

iOS 4.2 was released to developers as a golden master on Nov. 1. That status implies that the software is finalized and will be identical to the eventual public release.

The software update will bring folders and multitasking to the iPad, along with other features iPhone and iPod touch users have enjoyed since the launch of iOS 4 this past summer. iPhone owners will also gain the ability to have custom text message tones with the latest version of iOS.

A new beta of Mac OS X 10.6.5, Apple’s forthcoming software and maintenance update for Snow Leopard, was issued to developers on Monday. That software is believed to be near-final, as Apple has already been seeding Mac OS X 10.6.6 betas to developers as well.